Generally, diverse types of plastic cards such as a credit card, a cash card, a transportation card, a membership card, a medical card, an identification card are used in today's society. A lamination patch (called “coating film”) of a transparent material is attached on the plastic card to protect a printed surface such as an image, a design, a letter, etc., printed on the surface of the plastic card.
The lamination patch employs an attachment method by heat in a state that the lamination patch is disposed on the card. Diverse types of devices for card lamination are disclosed as described below.
FIG. 1 to FIG. 4 schematically show main constituent elements of a conventional card lamination apparatus.
As shown in FIG. 1, a card lamination apparatus 10, which is called a heat plate heating method, includes a lamination unit 13 disposed between inserting rollers 11 for inserting a card a and dispensing rollers 12 for dispensing a card. A heat plate 13a of the lamination unit 13 is separately disposed between a lower inserting roller 11a and an upper dispensing roller 12a to apply heat to a lamination patch b. A heater 13b for applying heat to the card is installed between a lower inserting roller 11b and a lower dispensing roller 12b. 
The card lamination apparatus 10 shown in FIG. 1 is configured to dispose the heater 13b and the heat plate 13a for lamination separately to prevent direct contact with the patch b or the card. Accordingly, in the middle of passing through the heat plate 13a and the heater 13b, the card a and the lamination patch b are attached to each other by heat. The card lamination apparatus 10 has an advantage that it is relatively inexpensive and has a superior durability. However, since the card lamination apparatus 10 does not adopt a method that heat is applied through direct contact with the lamination patch b, there is a high possibility that bubbles are generated to cause production of defective products.
A card lamination apparatus 20 shown in FIG. 2 adopts a heating method that a heater 23 installed on an upper inserting roller 21a for inserting a card transfers heat to an entire upper inserting roller 21a. This heating method is called an indirect roller heating method and is generally adopted for a photograph coating device. The indirect roller heating method is a method that a heat cover 24 besides the heater 23 is individually included to be a medium for transferring heat to the roller. Accordingly, the indirect roller heating method has disadvantages that heat transfer speed is slow and the roller needs to be washed frequently.
A card lamination apparatus 30 shown in FIG. 3 includes lamination units respectively disposed between inserting rollers 31 for inserting a card and dispensing rollers 32 for dispensing a card, and also disposed over inserting rollers 31. That is, a heat plate 33 as the lamination unit is separately disposed between an upper inserting roller 31a and an upper dispensing roller 32a to apply heat to a lamination patch b. A heater 34 for applying heat to a card is installed between a lower inserting roller 31b and a lower dispensing roller 32b. Also, a heater 35 and a heat cover 36 are installed on the upper inserting roller 31a. 
The card lamination apparatus 30 adopts a composite heating method that the heat plate heating method of FIG. 1 and the indirect roller heating method of FIG. 2 are combined to compensate for shortcomings of the two methods. Therefore, the card lamination apparatus 30 shows a fast speed and is capable of coating a photograph. However, the card lamination apparatus 30 and has disadvantages that it is expensive and its roller needs to be washed.
Meanwhile, a card lamination apparatus 40 shown in FIG. 4 includes a lamination unit 43 inside an inserting roller 41 for inserting a card. Since a heater as the lamination unit 43 is included inside an upper inserting roller 41a, the card a including the lamination patch b is heated and compressed in the middle of passing through a space between the upper and lower inserting rollers 41a and 41b. 
The card lamination apparatus 40 adopts a direct compressing method by the hot roller, which is called a hot roller method or a direct roller heating method. A halogen lamp or a hot-wire type cartridge is applied as a heater for performing lamination.
However, the direct roller heating method shown in FIG. 4 requires a high-capacity heater consuming great power raging about 200 to 300 w since lamination can be performed after heating the upper inserting roller 41a due to heat generated from a heater 43 installed inside the upper inserting roller 41a. That is, the direct roller heating method has a disadvantage that power consumption is too great. In addition, the upper inserting roller 41a needs to be heated to high temperature of 150r or more in order to perform lamination. Since about 2 to 5 minutes are required for increasing surface temperature of a roller having a large diameter, there is an inconvenience in use due to too long waiting time, i.e., warming up time.
The above-mentioned direct roller heating method has a disadvantage that a great amount of energy is wasted since the heater 43 should unnecessarily maintain a turn-on state to quickly perform lamination and the upper inserting roller 41a heated by the heater emits heat in an entire direction of 360° regardless of lamination besides a lower direction.
The direct roller heating method requires a device for elevation since a roller ascends and descends onto a card to perform lamination. The direct roller heating method also requires a device for a rotary motion since the roller moves as a cloud on a surface of the card. Accordingly, the direct roller heating method has a complicated structure to cause increase of manufacturing cost, frequent troubles and difficulty in maintenance.